The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes — Reading Notes

Heine's Shifting Personae

Heine's section moves from the Dedication to the sardonic Germany and the battlefield report of Enfant Perdu. The poems toggle between intimate address and political commentary, often within the same stanza. In The Sphinx, a riddle-like structure gives way to a direct, almost conversational turn. The prose selections—The Journey to the Harz, English Fragments—show Heine as a travel writer who blends landscape description with cultural critique. The variety of translators means that the same poet can sound Byronic in one piece and folkloric in another; readers should attend to how the Englishing reshapes the original's rhythmic bite.

Grillparzer's Staged Interiority

Grillparzer's Medea opens not with action but with a ritual burial of magical objects. Medea's speeches are measured, almost legalistic in their self-accounting: 'I shall not need them more; here let them rest.' The play's pace is deliberately slow, with long speeches that internalize conflict rather than externalize it. The accompanying biographical sketch notes Grillparzer's ideal of 'comprehensive sensitiveness' and his suspicion of Northern German rationalism. His prose piece The Poor Musician and the travel account My Journey to Weimar extend this introspective mode into narrative, where external events serve chiefly to trigger memory or reflection.

Beethoven's Letters as Self-Portrait

The Beethoven section consists entirely of letters, introduced by Walter R. Spalding's essay on the composer as correspondent. The letters are not arranged chronologically but thematically, foregrounding Beethoven's negotiations with publishers, patrons, and his own deafness. The prose is blunt, often peremptory: requests for money sit beside declarations of artistic independence. Unlike the literary works, these documents have no mediating translator's voice—J.S. Shedlock's translation aims for transparency. The effect is a raw counterpoint to the crafted personae of Heine and Grillparzer, reminding the reader that the volume's 'masterpieces' include the unpolished utterances of a working artist.

Because the volume gathers three distinct authors and multiple translators, the reader may benefit from sampling a single author's section straight through before comparing across them. The editorial apparatus—biographical sketches, footnotes, illustrations—provides context but does not dictate interpretation. Pay particular attention to the dates of composition and translation: a poem rendered in 1914 may carry different stresses than one translated in the 1840s.

Some evenings, with Heine’s restless verses and Beethoven’s letters open before me, I think of another shelf where a small company of explorers sets off toward the pole. There is a lovely, quiet kinship there—both volumes whisper of longing that outruns any map, of journeys undertaken for the sheer ache of horizon. They sit apart, yet they breathe the same air of brave, solitary wonder. The Purchase of the North Pole A sequel to "From the earth to the moon" — A Reader’s Guide holds that same old spark, tucked between its covers.